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Tom Bertke of Oakland Reginald Jones of Oakland (with Snoop Dog and Moichael Jackson drawings he drew) talk while riding AC Transit's all-night 800 line, the "Nightowl." The bus makes its way from Market and Van Ness to the Richmond BART station. The transit agency hopes to boost ridership among east bay working people and weekend nightclubbers.
Photo by Kim Komenich/The Chronicle
**Tom Bertke, REginald Jones �2007, San Francisco Chronicle/ Kim Komenich
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Photo: Kim Komenich

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Tom Bertke of Oakland Reginald Jones of...

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Driver Tim Davis had been on a shift where he drives swings shift four days and drives AC Transit's all-night 800 line, the "Nightowl" one night per week. The Nightowl makes its way from Market and Van Ness to the Richmond BART station. The transit agency hopes to boost ridership among east bay working people and weekend nightclubbers.
Photo by Kim Komenich/The Chronicle �2007, San Francisco Chronicle/ Kim Komenich
MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE. NO SALES- MAGS OUT.

Photo: Kim Komenich

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Driver Tim Davis had been on a shift where he...

BAY AREA / Partyers, workers rely on Night Owl buses / Service that covers the wee hours is a lifeline for some, but fares can't keep up with costs

"Yeah," the older man replied. "Hell, I remember when TV was brand new. Radio was still king."

Their exchange typifies the easygoing atmosphere on the Night Owl bus, where guards, hotel workers on the graveyard shift, club-hoppers and homeless people rub shoulders as they travel along routes that link disparate parts of the Bay Area long after BART stops.

Launched in December 2005, the Night Owl network, which involves transit agencies in several different counties, stops at BART stations between 1 and 5 a.m. While it's heavily used in urban areas, the service is struggling in suburban communities like Contra Costa County. The low ridership could threaten the service, officials say.

Loss of the Night Owl would be a major blow, said Seth Schneider, communications director for the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, a transit lobby.

"I think it's critical for everyone, from late-night workers to people who are out for fun and get stranded," Schneider said. "For people who don't have a car, it gives people access to more job opportunities."

The network includes AC Transit, County Connection, Wheels, Muni and SamTrans. The different services coordinate bus schedules to provide service overnight. Most buses run every hour, but some, like the AC Transit 800 line, run every 30 minutes on weekends. The 800 travels from downtown San Francisco through West Oakland and into Richmond.

On a recent Saturday run, three people boarded the 800 line at Market Street and Van Ness Avenue, its San Francisco starting point. Fifteen riders had boarded by the time it rumbled onto the Bay Bridge.

Esteban Allard's body swayed from side to side as he sat reading a book.

"I almost always come to hang out with friends. I was just at the MFA at an art showing, and hanging out at the Castro with some friends," said Allard, 25, of Oakland.

"It's nice to be able to go to events and not be rushed," agreed Marisa Gant, 26, of Berkeley, who was on her way home after a concert.

In another corner of the bus, Reginald Jones of Oakland had struck up a conversation with the man sitting across from him, Burlingame businessman Tom Bertke.

As the bus made its way along the Bay Bridge's lower deck, Jones showed off piece after piece of artwork -- black and white sketches and color prints of James Brown, Malcolm X, Snoop Dogg and a young Michael Jackson.

"When I get confident, I'm going to put it out in the market. I'm not ready yet, though," Jones, 45, said of his art.

Jones has taken the Night Owl several days a week over the past month to visit family in San Francisco. "I didn't even know about it, that it ran this far over," Jones said of the service. "It's convenient and cheap."

Night Owl regulars said they've seen fistfights and drunken partygoers. They've watched total strangers become friends and volunteer to pay others' fares.

"You get a mixed bag," said Night Owl bus driver Tim Davis, who starts his workday at 10:15 p.m. "Sometimes it can get like 'Taxicab Confessions,' people doing strange things."

In April, the bus agencies that make up the Night Owl routes launched an awareness campaign and mailed information packets to 10,000 businesses in Contra Costa, Alameda and San Mateo counties. The campaign focused on convenience stores, hotels, hospitals, restaurants and bars.

Yet many people still don't know it exists.

On a recent evening at BART's Richmond Station, Jasmine Carrington, 17, and Alexis Willard, 16, were headed to San Francisco for their regular weekend trip.

Both girls agreed that BART shuts too early to be convenient.

"It's hecka hard," Alexis said. "We have a curfew, and a lot of the time we don't make it back in time for curfew."

Neither was aware of Night Owl, but they said they would use such a service.

Night Owl service operates in part with funds from Measure 2, a voter-approved initiative that in 2004 added a $1 toll on all local bridges except the Golden Gate. Fares are supposed to make up the rest of the Night Owl budget.

Transit service rarely pays for itself through fares alone. But on some lines, the Night Owl service has failed to earn back its budgeted amount in fares.

For example, Contra Costa's County Connection expected fares to pay for about 10 percent of the county's costs for the Night Owl service. But fares last year covered less than 1 percent of the costs, leaving the agency to pick up an additional $37,000 in operating costs.

The number of passengers on the 820 line, which runs from West Oakland through central Contra Costa to Concord, has increased steadily, from 284 in July 2006 to 659 in March 2007, but is still short of the numbers needed to have the service pay for itself. It's unclear how many people regularly ride all of the Night Owl lines.

"The partners really have a responsibility to use that money wisely, because we don't want it to go away," County Connection spokeswoman Mary Burdick said.